From: Rainer Subject: Rainer's Europe Trip 1998 -- part 12 Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 18:36:24 EDT Hi again, Here's part 12. Part 13 isn't finished writing yet. The writing of part 14 hasn't even started. Evenings, used to write the journals, are getting later and later. It's 0030 again and we're going on a road trip tomorrow -- but that's getting ahead of myself. That'll be covered in part 15. I'll still be writing this. I hope you're still reading it. Cheers, Rainer Monday, 10/5 It's 1530 right now. We just crossed the German border on the train to Berlin. The day's been a good one. We started it off with the last breakfast at the City Hotel, then back to the room to pack. There is actually a little bit of space in places of our backpacks. I'm really glad that we sent that package to Portland. I went to pay the bill and was quite surprised. I'd heard horror stories about the surcharges for telephone calls. But, even with our over 50 calls, the bill was less than I expected and the most expensive call was only 4 guilders (for some reason abbreviated Dfl). We packed the car and headed one last time down the main street in Scheveningen. Since we had ample time, Vera wanted to drive by one more school that she had gone too. We did, but we're not sure that it was the right one since nothing seemed familiar to her. We ended up on the Binkhornslaan, found BP station that wouldn't honor our BP credit card (but would take Visa) and filled the tank with 26 liters for 56.50 Dfl. The Hertz place was just down the street and even had a parking space in front of the office. Since only one guy was manning the small office he couldn't drive us to the Central Station. We were not going to walk this time! He was kind enough to call a cab, which arrived in few minutes. The cab driver helped with all the baggage and was hoping that he would drive us to Schiphol, the airport in Amsterdam. Only 97 Dfl, what a deal. No, just to the Central Station. You're probably going to take the train to Schiphol, then, right? No, we're going to Berlin. We kidded back and forth. He dropped us off at the front door for 15 Dfl and I gave him a good tip, telling him that I hoped his next fare would want to go the airport. He laughed and waved good bye. We had about an hour to spare at Central Station. I found a bench in front of the huge train departure board and sat myself down with our baggage. Monika and Vera went exploring, but not until I'd given them some more guilders -- they were really going shopping. The Dutch travel coordinator ensured that we didn't have to get any local train tickets and off they went. Our train to Amersfoort wasn't even on the board yet. It's kind of neat to watch the board flip over as trains come and go every few minutes. Monika and Vera returned with Dutch drinking song CD and the 4 Divas CD. Guess who bought which? The 12:36 to Amersfoort appeared on the board. Amersfoort wasn't listed as the destination of the train, rather it was in the "via" column. I noticed then that there was a 12:06 to almost the same place with Amersfoort in the "via" column, too. We checked, and agreed that we could take the earlier train. I get pretty anxious about making connections so getting to Amersfoort a half hour earlier made me feel better. The train left right on time and sped along at a very quick clip. You have to be sure to watch which cars you get in -- there are both first and second class sections. We asked two different trains people walking around Amersfoort to be sure that track 2 was where the train to Berlin was leaving from. It was they said. A quick snack of patats frits and 7 up was lunch. The train for Berlin changed over to track one at the last minute. Luckily we didn't have to go down the stairs and over to another track, we just had to move from one side of the train departure area to the other. Car 12 contained our reserved seats. It was the last car of the train. We hustled to get there. The train only stops for a minute -- literally. With bags stowed it was time to relax for 6 hours -- which is what we're doing now. I trip to the Bistro car and a draft pils helped, too. Car 12 appears not to be electrically connected to the rest of the train. The heat and lights are off. It's pleasant now, but Vera's already put on her extra sweat shirt, and when we go through a tunnel you can't see a thing. I asked the conductor about it. The stopped the train shortly out of Osnabrueck on a side track. It appears that the heat may now be slightly on, but still no lights. Turns out the heat went off again. The lights came on intermittently but stayed mostly off. As it got later, it became pretty uncomfortable with respect to the heat, and you couldn't read. The conductor came through and told people the should move to another car. The only other first class car was full, so we ended up in second class. It was light and warmer, but more smokey. We decided to go to the Bistro car for a dinner/snack -- but they only had one pizza left. Back to second class. We arrived in Berlin just a few minutes late. My cousin, Thomas, wife, Hanelore, were there to meet us. Vera and Monika both were given a rose. It was very nice to be met, to not have to figure out which way to go, to have help with the baggage, and to have a car to drive to the hotel in. Unfortunately, the car wasn't big enough for all of us and all of the luggage. Luckily the hotel was just a block or two away, so Hanelore decided to walk over an meet us there. Number 5 Meineckestrasse was not what an American tourist would recognize as having a hotel in it. Number 5 looked like the front door to a typical apartment building in Berlin. There were not lights of any sort indicating that there was any business going on here. Thomas rang the bell for the Kolumbus Hotel and the lady answering the intercom pushed the buzzer so we could open the huge front door. She gave instruction to take the lift to the third floor. The lift was only big enough to hold one person and most of the baggage. The rest waited for the lift to run again. The "hotel" occupied one half of the third floor. The 20 rooms were off a long hallway that had very creaky floor boards. Our room, #20, was the last one in the hall (actually around a couple of corners). The room itself was huge in all dimensions, but most notably in the vertical one -- the ceilings were at least 10 or 12 feet high! There was a little side room with an extra bed. The room had a sink and a shower in one corner of what seemed like a living room. The WC was just down the hall, as was a second shower. We were greeted by a sweet lady who could be your great aunt. She spoke continual German to everyone and insisted that Thomas and Hanelore (she referred to them as "the relatives") accompany us down the hall and to the room. She immediately fetched a vase for the two roses. She gave detailed instructions on use of the three keys -- one for the room itself, one to the main hall door from the landing of the third floor, and one for the front door of the building. She told us about breakfast, 7-11, in the side room we passed just after entering. She wished us a good stay in Berlin and a good night. Monika immediately inspected the telephone and noticed that the cord was not removable from either the phone or the wall -- just like at the Esmeralda in Paris. There would be no email tonight or tomorrow morning. Not a good sign, if you catch my drift. We basically dropped our bags and went walking down the Kuhrfuerstendam, probably the most popular street in Berlin, looking for a place to eat. We walked past the famous Kaiser Wilhelm Church -- a bombed out remnant left standing from the war -- to a Moevenpick restaurant. Unfortunately, the only table for 5 still needed cleaning. Fortunately, we could order drinks and there where lots of seats at a counter. Unfortunately, the menu available at the counter was all in German (surprise). Fortunately, when we were seated Vera and Monika were given English versions of the menu. Unfortunately there was nothing on the menu that Monika wanted to eat. Fortunately, we convinced her to have dessert first and have dinner later (we saw a Golden Arches on the way to this place). Unfortunately, the chocolate mousse wasn't that great. Most of the rest of the dinner was pretty good. I liked what I had. The pilsner (pils) was also much better than any beer on the trip so far -- even though it wasn't dark beer. Thomas paid the bill -- which was very nice, too. We left following the McD signs (300 meters). The weird thing about the sign was readable from the direction we were walking had an arrow that was intended to be viewed as a three dimensional object pointing out of the two dimensional sign. It was really pointing in the direction from which we had come! First time for such a sign for anyone in this group. Since arrival in the train station was one in which we were met by people, I forgot in all of the excitement to stop at the ATM and get some Deutsch Marks. We found a bank along the 300 meters to McD's. The ATM is inside a glassed in room. You need to ATM card just to enter the room. That was strange. Then, the ATM refused, without explanation, to dispense the 1000 DM I'd asked for. A message came up that this machine was out of service. I tried the other machine and asked for 500 DM. Same result. Oh oh. We left the room and continued walking to the Arches. I passed another bank and tried again. Same result. I borrowed some German money from my cousin and planned to go to the bank first thing next day. I wondered, though, what the problem was. Did those kids in Paris get more than the 100F? Did they get Vera's PID and possible an account number? Was all our money withdrawn? Was the ATM just out of cash? Would all three machines be out of cash? Did the Dutch police have an APB out for me because of the pump house parking incident? So many questions. No answers. We found the MacDonald's, bought some dinner for Monika, and went back to the Kolumbus Hotel. We passed a couple of quiet pubs along the way. The German speaking part of the group still had lots of stuff to talk about. Monika and Vera were happy going up to the room and calling it a day. I walked them upstairs, trying out all three keys along the way, and then when back down to meet Thomas and Hanelore in one of the pubs for a last beer. We talked about a lot of things in a short amount of time. It is much more efficient not to translate everything. I realize from Holland how out-of-touch one gets when one doesn't understand the language. All through dinner I'd try to translate what Thomas and Hanelore were saying so Vera and Monika could stay informed and then translate what Vera and Monika were saying to Thomas and Hanelore would know what was going on. Needless to say, I was the last one to finish my dinner. This reminds me of a funny incident in Holland (this should probably be a new paragraph, huh?) when Vera was doing the same thing -- translating back and forth She lapsed in and out of English a lot more, however. And at one point, after having had an interchange in English with her Dutch relatives, turned to Monika and me and translated into English what she'd been talking about. We all had to laugh about that one. Since Hanelore had to work the next day, we called it quits about 2330. I fiddled with the three keys in the dark -- did you know that stairwells in Europe are typically not lit? You have to find a light switch, usually with a little light in it so you can find it in the dark. The switch is on a timer and shuts the light off after a short while. I walked all the stairs rather than taking the lift and really felt like a high school kid sneaking in home late from a date or something. It was all very quiet and dimly lit in the hotel halls. And even though I walked very slowly, the creaking floor boards sounded very, very loud. The key to the room didn't work since Vera had locked the door by hand. Luckily, she was still awake, and opened the door after my fiddling with the lock for a while. We talked for a while and brought each other up to speed on what had happened in the last couple of hours. It was now just past midnight. I tried calling my Dad on the telephone since I'd received messages that my Mom had to go back to the hospital, but never figured out how to get an outside line. Phones, like toilets, all operate differently in Europe. This phone had a black button that you needed to push to get an outside line. How are you supposed to know that? Monika had fallen asleep on my side of the bed, so I said goodnight, and went to the side room. The feather bed cover appeared at first to be way too short. I figured out that it had been folded in half and then lay down and went pretty much right to sleep in the room with the 12 foot high ceilings.